Case of Contempt for a Cop…
Or, did the uppity Prof deserve what he got…
Does the bizarre sight of the President of the United States and the Vice President posed in ever-so serious debate with an African-American Harvard professor and a Irish-American police sergeant from Boston seated at a table in the garden of the White House around four half pint pots of beer and some pretzels, instantly dubbed the Beer Summit by the media, mean that America has finally flipped into total national inanity, or is something serious going on here?
If you thought this was about race, you are seriously barking up the wrong tree, along with 75% of all Americans. No, this is about something much more universal, something that affects us all and has probably been the cause of more blood spilled than anything else since history began - and that includes sex.
I’m talking about RESPECT.
We all want it, if not demand it. No one, it seems more, than the men in uniform, whom we pay to keep the peace. For most of us, by no means all, our soldiery are safely sequestered in their barracks, but policemen walk amongst us in our streets. It’s not an easy job and I guess we get the policemen we deserve - be it beleaguered lawmen hunkered down in Fort Apache, the Bronx, spick and span praetorians above the law because they think they are the law, or just ordinary men earning a living oppressing their fellows because that’s the only way they can earn a living.
“When constabulary duties to be done
Taking one consideration with another
A policeman’s lot is not a happy one.”
(“Pirates of Penzance”, Gilbert & Sullivan, 1879)
Well that may be how it looked back in Victorian Britain when the police represented the interests of the landed and professional classes and tended to show a decent respect for law-abiding citizens, while knocking the riff-raff into line. But that’s not the perspective from Fort Apache, the Bronx, or anywhere else in the world where cops act as paid off thief-takers, preying off society while keeping a semblance of order. The idea of gun-toting policemen as public servant is an anachronism and whatever their stripe they, like the rest of us demand respect - and can and do book you if you don’t give them it.
“(ooh) What you want
(ooh) What you need
(ooh) All I’m askin’
(ooh) Is for a little respect when you come home
(just a little bit)
Hey baby (just a little bit)
When you get home mister
(just a little bit)
r-e-s-p-E-c-t
Find out what it means to me
R-E-S-P-E-C-T”
(Aretha Franklin, 1967)
So what we have here is a bystander, who reported as possible crime taking exquisite care to mention that it might not be a crime at all; a famous black African American Studies professor married to a white woman; an Irish policeman who taught other officers about racial profiling; a bi-racial president, who had won election in part because of his ability to foster understanding between the races and a vice president who gate-crashed the photo-op because he likes to display his blue collar credentials and spinmeisters thought it would even up the racial mix of the “summit”.
The undisputed facts of the case are clear. Prominent Harvard professor Henry Gates, returns home in the daytime, jet lagged from a long trip. The keys to his house don’t work and he breaks into his own house. A neighbour sees this and reports a possible break-in. Sgt. James Crowley of the Cambridge, Mass. police arrives on the scene. He establishes the identity of Professor Gates, that he is indeed in his own home, that no crime has been committed and there are no guns or drugs on the premises. But Prof. Gates, tired and emotional, feels he is being racially stereotyped and not accorded the respect his position has earned him and is rude and objectionable. However he is careful not to physically resist or break the law. Now it is Sgt. Crowley who feels Prof. Gates is not showing the respect his uniform and position as a policemen commands. Having established no crime has been committed instead of leaving Sgt Crowley arrests Prof. Gates on the grounds of “loud and tumultuous behaviour”. He calls in back-up and Prof. Gates is handcuffed, taken off to the local station where he is booked, mugshot taken, fingerprinted and placed in a cell. The DA’s office realises that no crime had been committed and Prof. Gates is released, no apologies offered.
The essential problem with what could and should have been a non-event is that almost everyone is taking sides. The truth is, and everyone knows it, this harmless situation could easily have ended tragically with someone being shot dead. All it would have taken is a 10% greater over-reaction by either Prof. Gates or Sgt Crowley. On the other hand with just a 5% lesser reaction on everyone’s part, none of this need have happened at all.
This case was never about race, neither Prof Gates or Sgt Crowley are racialists, it all about respect and judgement, or rather lack of it. It was about abuse of authority. Had Prof. Gates been meek and subservient he would not have been arrested. Being angry is not illegal. Nor is lack of subservience or a bad attitude toward cops illegal. Prof. gates had committed no crime and Sgt Crowley, a competent and able officer, almost certainly knew that. What he did was to punitively arrest Prof. Gates to salve his own ego.
This “I am the Law!” attitude is not only pervasive in America but is common among police forces and other law enforcement authorities around the world. Not only that, large sections of the public have become so used to their police acting in this manner that they believe it is right and proper police behaviour to put anyone who has offended or disrespected a police officer through the trauma and insult of arrest.
The thing about the ‘contempt for a cop’ issue is that it almost evenly divides most Americans. Supporters of Sgt Crowley and the Cambridge police agree that this is the main issue but feel that is exactly why Prof. Gates should have been arrested. The other side claiming that is the slippery slope toward a police state.
Ten days after this incident two police officers in Oklahoma were shot dead without warning as they attempted to serve a routine warrant at a home. While it is easy to understand why police officers don’t take crap when responding to 911 calls, it does not make it right. There was never any question of violent wrongdoing in the case of Prof. Gates. It was simply a bad call and a waste of public money.
One hopes that some good will come out of the beer summit and all this chatter about race. It well might, but it never was the issue.
No, the life or death question, and we would do well to remember it when facing a man with a gun in uniform or not, is that it’s respect that makes the world go round, not love.
